BESS (Electronic Library for the Social Sciences of Piedmont) aims to improve access to on-line biliographical and statistical resources available to students, faculty and research staff and to further inter-library cooperation in the field of economics and the social sciences in the Region of Piedmont.

BESS-Piemonte can be accessed from all computers of the University of Torino and the Collegio Carlo Alberto without a login or password.

http://www.bess-piemonte.it/riviste/banche_dati.htm

You may need to change your web browser network connection settings to use proxy server px.bess-piemonte.it port 3128. After you're done accessing BESS, please change the proxy settings back (usually to "No proxy").

The libraries participating in BESS, (11 full partners plus the Turin Chamber of Commerce, an associate institution) pledge their resources, acquired through funding from the Compagnia di San Paolo, to establish a better standard of service for a wider public. The entire range of newly-developed services is offered in full respect of current Italian copyright laws and the conditions governing access to their collections set by each member libray.

BESS has produced a cooperative catalogue of full-text journals which permits fast and easy access to full-text articles of approximately 1000 journals, through a specifically designed Documet Delivery procedure. Document Delivery is set up as a basic and free-of-charge service offered by the partner libraries. BESS negotiates with publishers, aggregators, and information brokers purchase/access to electronic resources. Acquired resources are then shared by all the partners and offered to the public. The discipline-based acquisition policy strives to make the most out of the group's economies of scale. It builds upon the individual partners' specialisation and concentrates on the following three main areas: general economics, finance, industrial economics; social and political sciences; Italian, European and international law.